Having a steady stream of monthly donations is an essential part of any charity's fundraising strategy. Monthly donors are more likely to remain loyal to your organization, provide consistent support over time, and be responsive to requests for additional funds when needed.
However, continually acquiring new monthly donors can be a challenge. So how do you acquire more monthly donors? Here are 5 tips that will help you do just that.
1) Boost Monthly Donors with Email
The most cost-effective and easiest approach to communicate with potential monthly gift donors is through personalized emails to one-time donors. They have already given, they believe in your mission, and they've established an online connection with you.
Before you draft an email appeal, you should have a clear idea of who you’re sending emails to, and how to segment your donors in order to personalize your emails. You should tailor your email messages to specific segments of people on your list.
There are many ways to segment your subscribers (E.g. by age group, gift size, giving timelines, or one-time vs. long-term supporters, etc.). You can further segment your list by people who have donated to a specific project and then send them email updates about the project’s progress and the impact of their monthly donations.
The more relevant the email content is to the reader, the more engaged they will be, and the better results you will see from your emailing efforts.
2) Boost Monthly Donors with Donation Forms
Change your messaging and contribution forms to include monthly giving, informing donors that monthly gifts are a popular and often appreciated method of giving.
Generally, the response rate does go up as the gift amount goes down. You really want to capture as many monthly donors as possible, even in small amounts. There’s always room to upgrade later.
3) Boost Monthly Donors with Your “Ways to Give” Landing Page
Chances are you already have a “donate now,” “support us,” or “ways to give” page on your website. Many people choose to provide recurring donations, often through programs such as food banks and clothing drives. One-time gifts, volunteer opportunities, contributions of securities, and collection drives are all examples of typical ways to give. Make sure monthly giving is offered here as a choice.
4) Boost Monthly Donors with Social Media
You may use the various social media platforms you participate in to publicize your monthly giving effort on a regular basis.
Take this chance to discuss the program your charity is proud of, how far you've come, and what a difference your donors have made. Here are a few things you can post about to boost monthly donations:
5) Boost Monthly Donors with Special Incentives
If you're just getting started with a monthly giving initiative or want to take it to the next level, consider offering your contributors some intriguing and inventive perks to get them interested.
Use these 5 tips to boost your monthly giving program. Just be sure to test along the way.
Philip Manzano is a Senior Client Marketing Manager at CanadaHelps, a leader in providing powerful fundraising and donation technology to charities and donors since 2000. Philip has been working closely with charities and small nonprofit teams to adopt nonprofit technology for the last nine years. www.canadahelps.org
Cover photo for this story was taken by Eden Constantino on Unsplash